Process safety 101

Here is some of the latest process safety related coverage from CONTROL

It's one thing to talk the talk, but another to walk the walk. Although talking about process safety is a good place to start, taking initiative and implementing process safety procedures is another beast. Here is some of the latest process safety related coverage from CONTROL, highlighting the importance of process safety, making it a profitable endeavor and other resources.

The future of industrial process safety is profitable

Join us on Oct. 18 for a panel discussion with process safety experts as they explore:

"In the U.S., the process industry has lived through the aftermath of the Texas City and Deepwater Horizon events. This has resulted in many companies expending significant monies attempting to educate workforces on the importance of critical protection layers such as basic process control systems (BPCS) and/or safety instrumented systems (SIS), but even with the best intentions, we've often failed miserably," says Mike Scott, co-founder and executive vice president of global process safety technology at aeSolutions, a member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) in Greenville, S.C. "In order to make a step change in process safety performance, a paradigm shift in how we make risk-based financial decisions and ultimately how we operate facilities is mandatory because what we've been doing up to now isn't working.”

"The process industries are always seeking more efficiency, so we're also seeing process safety programs using more As Low as Reasonably Practical (ALARP) principles to determine the risk-to-benefit ratios of their efforts. It also helps that many insurers are learning about IEC 61511 and other standards, and are sometimes offering 5-10% discounts on their premiums. This makes SIS a potential cost center, and that's really good news," explains Sam Kozma, safety and control systems specialist at Autopro Automation, a control system integrator in Calgary, Alberta.

Proof test coverage (PTC) of safety instrumented systems (SIS), also known as CPT, has recently become an important topic of discussion. PTC can be defined as the fraction of dangerous, undetected failures that can be detected by a user proof test and is normally expressed as a percentage (%). In the past, it was commonly assumed in calculation and in practice that proof test coverage was 100%. However, not all proof tests are comprehensive, and the approval agencies often indicate that the recommended proof test does not have a 100% PTC, new out of the box.

A clear understanding of the failure rate, failure mode and failure effects for devices as well as implementation of a management program to effectively identify and correct failures on a routine basis are essential for achieving the needed reliability.